Women, dressed as male warriors armed with bows and arrows, brought to stage a piece of history on the Santhal rebellion on Sunday evening.
All the characters were played by women of various ages who took the piece of history from the textbook to create awareness about the tribals.
Keraleeya Mahila Samaj, a Malayali organisation based in Kolkata that is celebrating its 81st anniversary, depicted the British-Santhal struggle through the play called Santhal Hul, staged at Behala Sarat Sadan.
“The Santhal rebellion is past for us. One cannot forget the past. There is much to learn from it by bringing it to the present,” said Krishna P. Nair, chief coordinator of the play and the secretary of the Keraleeya Mahila Samaj, Kolkata.
Their research for the play included travelling to a tribal village near Shantiniketan to understand their culture and habits.
“It is a serious effort on the part of a group of women to mainstream a section of society who are marginalised. I respect these women, who are both working and homemakers, They have put up a play on what is seen as part of regional history. Only when we understand these pieces of history, can we understand Indian history in totality,” said Ata Mallick, assistant professor, department of history, Dr B R Ambedkar Satabarshiki Mahavidyalaya in North 24-Parganas.
Mallick, who was the guest of honour on Sunday, specialises in tribal and gender studies. She said: “This is an effort to mainstream the marginalised....”
The play was in Malayalam with some portions in English but it was able to reach out to the non-Malayali people as well by the actors’ body language and acting.
After the one-hour-40-minutes play written and directed by Ravi Thykkat, the members of the audience were invited to share their responses on the stage.
“We wanted to understand whether they understood what we had tried to communicate,” said Nair.
Geetha Venugopal, the associate director of the play who also played a character, said that audience applause and appreciation leave a “sense of satisfaction” for the actors and those associated with the play.
Tourism
The Bengal government has decided to showcase tourist destinations of the state on digital and social media to reach out to a larger audience both, domestic and international, to increase the footfall of tourists in the state.
